Help! My chicken could have a broken neck!

dialuann

Chirping
Aug 27, 2022
26
12
64
This morning when I let out the chickens, I found my Brahma chicken lying on the ground. She cannot walk (when she tries, she falls over continually and panics) and her neck and head keep falling to her chest. Also, the right side of her face is bruised and marked.
 

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We have chicken vitamins, but she won’t open her beak at all. It looks like her eyes are swollen, as well.
 
Pull down gently on her wattles to open her beak. If no wattles, pull on the loose skin under her beak where wattles would be. If necessary, tuck a pinky finger in beak to hold it open while you insert capsules. Good luck!
 
I agree, that looks like wry neck, I had a hen who looked the same. As the others said, she probably needs vitamin E and selenium. This website I'm looking at also says that wry neck chickens could be deficient in vitamin B1 and D. Vitamin pills can be given by mouth, and there's also liquid medicine mixtures like NutriDrench and PoultryCell have a lot of vitamins packed together, which is what I gave my hen. You can probably squirt this into your chicken's mouth, I'll attach a screenshot of a diagram from a video I saw, which shows how where to safely squirt the medicine so she doesn't inhale it.

Screenshot 2025-09-04 130548.png



Here's the video if you want to watch:


Good luck with your hen!
 
Do you think that she was attacked by a flock member, rooster or a predator? That could account for her wry neck/torticolis and the facial swelling. Is it on both sides of her face? The usual treatment for wry neck is separation and help with feeding and water. Then use 400 IU of human vitamin E and 1/4 tablet of super B complex daily. A spoonful of scrambled egg daily will give her enough selenium as well. With feeding I would make a fresh bowl of watery chicken crumbles or pellets, a little cooked egg, and a spoonful of plain yogurt twice a day. She looks really beaten up. Is she new or have you had any predator issues? Wry neck is a neurological symptom that can be caused by head or neck injury, a disease, or vitamin deficiency. I hope that she gets better.
 

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